How Roman Inventions Influenced the Modern World

Many people around the world start of their day by reading the newspaper. However many of them probably don’t know that it was actually the ancient Romans who invented the newspaper. Of course, back then it wasn’t called a newspaper since there was no paper. The newspaper was one of ancient Rome’s many inventions. The Roman empire’s inventions have impacted the modern world immensely. Some of the most influential inventions of the Roman empire were the roads, Roman law and the advancements in science & technology.

The roads of ancient Rome were one of the most useful of Roman inventions. The roads of ancient Rome were used by everyone including soldiers, senate members, and slaves. Since the Roman roads were so often used, they contributed to the sharing of culture, languages, and beliefs. As people traveled along the roads to different places, they spoke in different languages which eventually all mixed with latin to create the romance languages. The roads also encouraged and increased trade because both the traders and the buyers found it easy to travel to Rome. The roads of ancient Rome even play a huge role in the modern world. Several roads in countries like France that used to be part of the Roman empire still use the foundations of roads that were built during the Roman empire. All of these roads led to Rome, which gave rise to the popular expression “all roads lead to Rome”. Most of these roads were created by the soldiers as they traveled and conquered different parts of the world. All of these roads that lead to Rome encouraged more people to come to Rome which helped Rome become the first city to reach 1 million people. However, as the population of Rome grew, most likely, so did the number of crimes which is why Rome would have needed set laws to keep the decisions made by the judges fairer.

In the early years of the Roman republic, there were no written laws. Judicial-decisions were based on traditions, customs, and past experience (which is why students who were learning to become judges often trained with an experienced judge). However, in the 400s B.C.E a law code was written down by the Romans and it was called the Twelve Tables. The Twelve Tables were a set of laws which covered various subjects such as court trial and others. As years passed, the Roman empire fell, however, Roman law outlasted the empire. Over time Roman law changed and evolved into a system called civil law. Civil law was still used in places that used to Roman colonies like France until pretty recently. According to Carozza, even in a large part of Germany until the 1900s, civil law was the law that was used. A more recent example of how Roman law still affects society today is that in certain cases, Roman laws have to be used to figure out judicial decisions. According to an interview with Pascal Pichonnaz done by Oliver Pauchard and swissinfo.ch, there was a case 12 years ago, when a breeder sold 6 parrots to an aviary. The parrots had been in quarantine before and the breeder promised that they were healthy. However one of the parrots had an inactive disease that was activated with stress. Due to this, all the other birds in the aviary were wiped out which cost the aviary 1 million dollars. When dealing with this case, the judges looked to Roman law to see how they would have handled the situation because a situation like this is rare.

The technological & scientific advancements that were made by the ancient Romans had a huge impact on not only the past but the present. A development that was made by the ancient Romans was the invention of battlefield surgery. Treating the soldiers right away after they got hurt was a huge advantage for the Roman empire. It meant that fewer soldiers died on the battlefield and if possible, the soldier could go and fight in the battle again. This also meant that there were more jobs making it easier for people to get jobs. The tools that were used by these battlefield surgeons have largely inspired the ones used in hospitals today. One of the places, where the impact of the ancient Romans is very clearly visible is in agriculture and farming. Many of the tools that were commonly used till around 50 years ago were invented by the ancient Romans. The ox-drawn harvesting machine and the wheeled plow were both Roman inventions. These original agricultural tools have been the basis for a lot of agricultural development (National Geography).

To conclude, the ancient Romans had and still have a significant impact on the modern world. The long-lasting roads, Roman law, and their advancements in science and technology are some of the most influential of Roman inventions which have helped shape the world we live in. It’s hard to imagine what the world would be like today if the Roman empire hadn’t existed. Would things be different or would they be the same?